Goodnight Moon
by bluemacaroons
Summary: He sees her walking down another set of stairs, seeing her like it's the first time and here she is, wearing these messiest clothes when he realised, she's the most beautiful person he had ever seen, and there was no doubt that she was his Juliet in Quidditch boxer shorts. Inspired by Go Radio's Goodnight Moon.


The best moments in his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizarding, James would later conclude, were the late nights in the Heads Dorm with Lily. Granted, most of the time these nights were spent doing essays for their classes, studying for their N.E. and even doing paperwork for the Head Student duties, but there was something about it that really got to him. Maybe it was the really true feeling of being in the graduating class, or the times when they were so tired they would make the stupidest of jokes and end up laughing for ages because their tired minds thought it funny, but maybe it was just being in the presence of Lily Evans that made it so special for James. Just sitting, not talking, not looking at each other, just sitting.

These nights were slowly established very early into their final year; for all the years Lily had attended Hogwarts, she really did enjoy studying in the common room rather than the dormitories or the library, but the noise and commotion denied her these opportunities, no thanks to the Marauders. So when she was appointed Head Girl, one of the many things she was excited about, was a quite environment to study in, that wasn't her cramped dorm room or the musty library.

It was a week into term when the seventh year class got homework that would qualify for some serious out of class, out of study hall work. So for the first time, Lily collected her parchment and textbooks and plopped down on one of the comfy armchairs in the private dorm with a satisfied smile on her face. But every rose has its thorns, or so she thought when James stepped through the portrait hole, a bag slung over his shoulder just as she opened to the correct page in her Advanced Potions book.

"Oh look, you've waited up for me! How nice of you, Evans." He greeted with a bright smile, making his way toward her and dumping his bag of school work on the floor at his feet before proceeding to fall into the chair that sat across from her own.

She frowned at him. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Potter; I only slave away for my one and only, Professor Slughorn." Since the beginning of the year, James had seemed to have deflated his head a bit. Not completely, he still thought highly of himself but he had stopped bullying other students and constantly asking her to Hogsmead. She was still suspicious; you don't go from six years of being a bigheaded git to just another bloke in one summer. But she had warmed up to him a bit, with all the time they spent together being in the same dormitory and doing Head duties, she stopped glaring at him all the time and shouting at him for even the little things. They weren't mates exactly, but no longer enemies.

He threw his head back and laughed before leaning over and pulling a selection of textbooks and a stack of parchment as well as a simple black quill. "Now I know why you rejected me all these years; I couldn't possibly be enough to get between that connection." He winked at her, making her snort and shake her head before continuing to scribble down the distinguishing factors of a corrosive potion.

From across her, James started to read his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook, every now and then pausing to jot down some notes. Lily looked up from her own work after a few moments of nothing put the sound of quills against parchment and pages flipping to fill the silence. Since the week they had been back at school, Lily had yet to see James study once, but there he was with his textbook and notes, studying away.

She kept on staring at him, expecting his to jump up and say 'Just kidding!' or for the other three Marauders to pop out from hiding places and dump a bucket of water on her. But alas, no one jumped out and James stayed in his seat.

Feeling like he was being watched, James slowly looked up and met Lily's gaze. She was just staring at him, frowning slightly, like she was trying to study him instead of studying Potions. He just raised an eyebrow at her. Did he have something on his face?

"Alright Evans?" He asked her instead of using one of the many cocky remarks he had come up with; he would rather have her inspecting him like a rat in a lab rather than glaring at him like he just murdered her cat.

"Yes I'm quiet alright, but are you?" She inquired.

"Well I could do with a cup of tea but I feel quiet dandy." She frowned further at his innocent smile.

"You're working." She motioned a hand at the textbooks in front of him, looking at them like they would explode any second now. He had to hold back a chuckle; as much as he should be offended that she doesn't trust him to not pull pranks and be a twat, she looked as adorable as ever curled up in the chair, books strewn everywhere, and the prospect of appearing 'socially acceptable' thrown out of the window, probably in the first five minutes she returned to the Head dorm, by adorning pajama pants, a t shirt that was probably a men's shirt and her red hair tied in a knot.

Despite his efforts, James let a smile slip before saying, "Yes I am working, as students tend to do at this hour. Good observation, Evans."

"Well obviously," she said, rolling her eyes. "But you're you, and you don't study."

"I'm me? Another spectacular observation! Wow Evans, you're on a roll tonight" James joked with her.

She gave him a straight face kind of look. "I mean in all of six years and one week, I've never seen you actual do any work or study for anything besides the best way to make a toilet blow up or the biography of your favourite Quidditch player."

"I resent that." Was all he said in reply, picking his books back and a resuming his studies. He felt her eyes on him for another few moments, but didn't allow himself to meet her gaze.

Eventually, she returned to her Potions work and they spent the rest of the night sitting on their sides of the long coffee table they shared respectfully, filling the silence with the crackle of the fire and the sounds emitted from quills scratching and pages turned and ever so often, a grunt in frustration or a quiet "Oh!" as one of them finally understood what they were trying to do.

That was the first night of the many late nights. Of course as it was the start of the term and only the start of all the work they would have piled on them all year around so the late wasn't the latest of all the nights, but it was a start.

And like clockwork, they would find themselves sitting in the common room together at least once a week. As the term drew on, they would find themselves going to bed later and later, but that wasn't the only change in pace between the two; their groups of friends had drawn together. The Marauders had started to sit with Lily's group of friends at meals, and slowly but surely, they started to hang out outside of meal times and classrooms.

The two grew closer from the new clique of friends, to being together as Head students down to the late nights in their dorm. It was still odd nonetheless, for both of them really. Each were waiting for the other to go back to being the James or Lily of the previous years. But as it seemed, James had matured, and Lily had learned to loosen up.

It could have been anything that finally got the two of them to stop acting like the other was a ticking time bomb, but in all honesty, it was probably the night they stopped calling each other by their last name.

It happened on one of the nights; one of the late nights filled with work and stress. Things were going as normally as usual, they did their work, they didn't bother each other, it was a normal night.

Lily was the first to go to bed that night, only having an essay to write and her Head duties opposed to James who needed to finish his own Head duties as well as two essays and a set of questions he has previously forgotten about. It was safe to say that James was under an incredible amount of stress.

So when Lily was finished, she collected her things and put them away in her book bag before slinging it on her shoulder as she stood up. She cast a worried look over at James, who, like her, was in his regular chair. But unlike the other nights, he was sitting on the very edge, elbows on his knees and his head bent over his work. His hand were clenched in his hair, and she could see that the muscles in his forearms bulging because of their tautness making her have to force herself not to stare. She had found herself doing that more and more these days; trying not to stare at him. She put it off as nothing, he was an attractive bloke after all, and now that he wasn't being an arse, it was easier for her to see that.

He had taken his glasses off, something she had observed he only does when either angry or frustrated. "Anything I can help with Potter?" She asked almost timidly, as she slowly made her way over to where he was sitting, clutching the strap of her bag.

He snapped his head up at her and stared at her for a moment like he couldn't figure out who or what she was. After a moment he shook his head slightly and put his glasses back on before looking at her.

"Arithmancy." Was all he said. He figured she wouldn't be able to help him as she never took the class, but it had surprised him that she came over and asked if he needed help.

"I would probably be more use if you asked me to play in the upcoming Quidditch game." She said with a weak smile. He laughed a strained laugh because they both know that Lily in a Quidditch game would go worse than a muggle-born being sorted into Slytherin.

"Thanks for the offer though." He gave her a small smile before looking back at his work and heaving a heavy sigh.

She stood up and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder before heading off to her room.

"Night, Evans." He called after her. She stopped when she got to her open door. Laying a hand on her door frame, she turned back to look at James. He had started to work again, glasses laying on the table again, one hand fisted in his hair, the other scribbling down notes from his textbook.

She smiled slightly, "Goodnight," she said before pausing, making James look up at her, taking his hand away from his hair making it even more messy than normal. "James." She finished.

She closed her door and left James sitting there, staring at where she had just disappeared in awe. After a moment, a crooked smile broke out of his face before continuing his work.

So they went on for another month or so. Over time, with more and more late nights each week, the two Head students grew even closer. It turns out that they didn't have piles and piles of common interests, but they were the same in that they liked learning about new things that the other enjoyed, like how James would listen to Lily go on and on about her favourite books and listened to records of Lily's favourite muggle band, while Lily listened to James discuss the pros and cons of flying in the summer versus flying in the winter.

Not that their friends would have ever brought it up when Lily and James were still only friends, but they found it irksome that they would skirt around anything that could be related in the two of them being in a relationship and would complain to themselves that the sexual tension between the two of them were ruining their meals.

James and Lily were oblivious to it though. Rather, James was oblivious to his friends' annoyance and Lily was just oblivious to everything, to even the fact there was sexual tension between them. She figured since James had stopped asking her out to make fun of her or just to prove something to his friends or whatever he was trying to achieve, that he was going to stop and they could just be friends, no strings attached. Although, she still racked her brain about why she would catch herself staring at him, or the way she would sometimes feel sick to her stomach when he would get closer than normal to her, or when he would just touch her arm to get her attention, or touch her back to lead her somewhere, or even when he threw his arm around her shoulders.

When the fateful night came around, a few days after Christmas break finished, the two of them found themselves in a very familiar situation; each of them sitting at either end of the long coffee table, books strewn out everywhere at their end, and a pile of sweets in the middle that they both collected over Christmas.

This night in particular was worse than others; the both of them had Head duties to fulfill, essays to write, questions to answer and studying to do. The professors must have gotten together and discussed giving the students a late Christmas present in the form of stacks of homework, or so Lily schemed to James after dinner on the way to their dorm.

He laughed at the time, but now, not even halfway through his pile of homework and had been going at it for three and a half hours, he reckoned that Lily was right.

They had gotten right to things the minute they stepped through the door, minus running off to retrieve the sweets, so Lily was still in her school uniform opposed to her usual pajamas, and James' robes and blazer were thrown across the floor of the common room, leaving him in his white button up shirt, tie hanging around his neck.

In retrospect, this probably raised their stress levels as well as frustrations. So when Lily finally half-screamed at her Transfiguration textbook and threw it across the room, James decided something needed to change. After he had a long laugh of course.

"Here have some sweets." He told her throwing some Chocolate Frogs at her, which probably wasn't the best idea, as she has terrible hand-eye coordination and ended up swatting one away and fumbling the other before it fell and splashed into the glass of pumpkin juice she left on the small table she dragged over to make more room.

She stopped and looked at James and he looked at her before they burst out laughing. That's something they did often; end up laughing at their mistakes or blunders.

"I hate school." Lily sighed when they finished laughing. "I mean I don't. But I do. You know?"

"Oh yeah you just make loads of sense, you should be a philosopher or a professional smart person." He smiled at her and she made a face at him. "But yeah, I know what you mean… I think."

"You know what." She said suddenly, sitting up straight. "I'm getting out of this uniform, I'm not comfortable. I have this theory you see, the more comfortable you are physically, the more comfortable your brain is and more easily you can access the information you need to complete your work and store the stuff you need." Lily explained as she made her way to stand by James. He just gave her a strange look before standing up and saying,

"You're an odd bird, Evans." He smiled down at her. "But I reckon you're right. But I have a question, do you think it'll be less painful and turn out better if I write my Potions essay lightly drunk?" He asked her, half mocking. She just laughed and turned to go up the stairs to her room.

"Only if you get me some too." She turned her head around and winked at him, still laughing before she scurried up the stairs and into her room, leaving James below, laughing and shaking his head at her antics.

He ran up the same set of stairs, but instead of turning right at the top like Lily had only moments ago, he turned left into his own dorm to fetch a few Butterbeers and a half-fill bottle of Fire Whiskey.

When returning to where they were previously sitting, he set down the drinks by the pile of sweets and conjured two glasses.

Only moments after conjuring the glasses, he heard Lily's door open and her bare feet patter against the floor. Turning around, he saw her make her way down the stairs in the same baggy t-shirt she wore that first night and a pair of boxer shorts patterned with small snitches and quaffles, a Christmas present from Sirius as a result of a long running joke they had, and her hair was tied up in a knot on the top of her head, which she must have done rather quickly because strands had already fallen out and the number of fly-away hairs increased as he watched her come down the stairs.

"I'm ready for some proper studying, at last. And honestly, it couldn't have come soon enough, I feel like I could write my N.E. right now." She joked as she made her way to him. But James wasn't exactly listening to her; he was more preoccupied with staring at her. He knew as much as the next person, that Lily Evans was indeed beautiful, but no one knew it as well as he did.

For the past few months, he had concentrated on getting her to not hate him, and had almost forgotten to look at her, like really look at her. Have you ever had one of those days where you're in the midst of a conversation and you're looking at this person who you're talking to and you stop and you really look at them. You see them differently, like it's the first time you've ever seen them, even though you see them every day. James was having one of these moments.

Because here she was, at god only knows what time, tired as all hell, dressed up in her messiest but comfiest of clothes, being so _Lily_ and James just flashed back to the day before he traveled to Hogwarts for the very first time when he and his dad had been sent out of the house by his mother, ordered to have a father-son bonding day. He remembered his father sitting beside him in the Leakey Cauldron after the day spent with his dear old dad, and he just turned to James and started to say, "One day James, you could be sitting in this very establishment on a date." And of course like any 11 year old boy would, James had made a face at his dad and said, "Ew!".

But his dad continued, "I mean it James. One day you'll have a girlfriend, or have a crush on somebody. And there'll be a day that comes, when everything stops, you'll look at her like it's the first time you've seen her, and when that happens James, keep in mind that you should never let her go. Because she's something and if she's got a Potter falling that hard for her, she's a keeper."

He later learned the reason why his mother sent them out of the house, his parents were getting a divorce and she needed some time alone. It was her that called it off, for reasons no one ever explained to him. But that's what brought his dad on to giving him the advice he did, because he let Mrs. Potter get away, for whatever reason.

James remembered something else, something that Marlene MacKinnon had mentioned to him sometime in fifth year. It was during an annual ball the school held, James and Marlene had stood in the Great Hall, James waiting for his date to come down the stairs and Marlene casually conversing with her friends while her date conversed with his, it was fifth year after all.

It was when Lily made her way down the stairs, adorning green silk dress robes, looking as beautiful as ever that Marlene caught James staring opened mouth at the redhead. "She's your Juliet, isn't she?" She nudged him giggling. He hadn't known what the bleeding hell she was talking about, and he told her as much.

"Juliet is a character in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It's an iconic love story, and people use the reference 'She's my Juliet' or 'He's my Romeo' when they find someone they really love. Maybe it's just my parents, but my mum always told me that one day I'll walk down a set of stairs towards this amazing guy and he'll be my Romeo and I'll be his Juliet." She told him. At the time, he brushed it off and teased her, but when he lay in bed before going to sleep that night, he concurred that Lily Evans was in fact his Juliet.

And now two years later, he sees her walking down another set of stairs, this time towards him, seeing her like it's the first time and here she is, wearing these messiest clothes when he realised, she's the most beautiful person he had ever seen, and there was no doubt that she was his Juliet in Quidditch boxer shorts.

"James?" She said, snapping him out of his thoughts. She was now standing before him looking up at him with those gorgeous green eyes, looking slightly worried. "I asked you a question… Hey are you alright? You look a little spacey?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm alright, sorry just zoned out there." He murmured shaking his head to clear it.

"Too much homework I assume. Alas," she said dramatically, pretending to faint, putting her hand over her face and falling on the couch. "It has finally taken a toll on our physical health as well as our mental health." James gave her a ridiculous look as she peeked at him through her hands and giggled at his the face he was making.

"C'mon drama queen, we have drunk homework to do." He came over to the couch and pulled her up by her arms which she had extended towards him. He pulled her up, but when he did, she stumbled forward slightly, but caught her balance against him, so when she wasn't falling over, they were standing chest to chest, and she was craning her neck to meet his eyes, and he was looking down to meet hers, their hands still intertwined.

"If you said you wanted me to come closer all you had to do was say so." He said breathlessly, but neither of them moved.

"Your eyes are really nice." She blurted out, equally as breathless. "Sorry that was stupid, I just never noticed before." She tended to say embarrassing things when she was nervous or flustered, and she was beyond the both right now. She couldn't speak and couldn't really process any thoughts, only that she wished she put on some more attractive pajamas and let her hair down or had done something so that she looked better than she did now.

Neither of them really knew what to do, it was like their hormones and emotions were controlling them and not their heads. So when they found themselves leaning in closer and closer, they were both pretty terrified.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." She whispered when their mouths were centimeters from touching.

"Me too," Was the last thing he said before he closed the distance and finally kissed her after years of waiting for that very moment. It was more than expected, it felt like fireworks and it felt every single bit worth the years of waiting.

The rest of the night went up hill from there. They kissed, and finished their homework, intoxicated not on alcohol, but on each other. And they changed places; they no longer sat in different arm chairs, but beside each other on the couch, their books piled on top of the other's books, and now and then helping each other with their questions, or taking a quick nap on the other's shoulder.

And in the morning, their friends enjoyed a sexual tension free breakfast.


End file.
